The Trip of Your Life
by kekame
Summary: I've been having these weird thoughts lately. Like, is any of this for real, or not? What if the answer to the first line of the game was actually 'or not? Axel is a psychiatric intern that will help 3 schizophrenic teens tell truth from fiction.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **This is a very experimental type of fic, I'd enjoy feedback if you read it. Furthermore, I don't own the characters, but oh, if only I did. Without further ado, here goes…

**The Trip of Your Life**

**Sora's POV**

Sora sat on the paopu tree once again, looking out at the ocean. He sat calmly taking in the quiet calm of the perfectly still day. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, a ray of light had appeared before him and out of that light stepped Donald and Goofy.

"Time for an adventure, Sora." Moments later, he was free falling, first through the ocean then through the air. A beautiful tune played in the background, setting a theme song for his dramatic experience.

**Axel's POV**

Axel sat back in an observation room where he could view the patients' behavior without being seen. Three patients sat in a padded room with three beds and a strange amount of graffiti all over the wall. Tapping his pen, he frowned as one of the three, who had previously been sitting calmly on his bed, suddenly and violently overthrew the sheets, revealing two stuffed animals beneath. (One of a dog and one of a duck). After he has some imagined conversation with them, he once again resumes his destructive habit of jumping off the highest point he can find. The floors have been given extra padding for this event. Interestingly, this does not appear to be for suicidal reasons. Unfortunately this has not been curable in this patient. The female is now playing a recorder, seemingly oblivious to what is going on around her. It makes a racket, though it appears that at one point she may have known how to play. The third patient, the taller of the two males, is sulking in the corner, cuddling a stuffed mouse dressed all in black. He appears to be jealous of the first male.

Another interesting note is that the shorter male is always saying that he has the key. I'm not sure what he means by that. It would seem that he would mean the key to his cell, however not one time has he ever tried to open the door.

Dr. Marluxia came up behind Axel and snatched the paper he was taking notes on. Looking it over he made several 'tch' noises.

"They have names you know? Just because they're suffering from schizophrenia, doesn't mean you should dehumanize them, _intern._"

Axel, though he was trying to make a good impression, knew not to take Dr. Marluxia too seriously.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll start using the names. Sora, Kairi, and Riku was it?" Axel waved him off as if he were taking his own job too seriously.

"You know, sometimes I really wonder what's going on in their heads. Like does he think his blue blanket is water or something? Maybe we should get him a different color?" Axel looked in on the three of them as the taller male, err… Riku stood atop the blue blanket beckoning Sora. However when Sora came running to him, Riku would throw the blanket over his head and run away laughing.

"They seem to be enjoying themselves." Marluxia laughed. "Besides which it is important not to disturb their environment without solid reason. We wouldn't want any traumatic emotions for them. I guess it just shows you weren't around when they tried to move Riku and Kairi to a different cell for awhile."

"Oh?" Axel raised an eyebrow curiously. "And what happened when they did that?"

Marluxia shrugged and laughed. "He got out. The little one did. Dr. Xemnas was coming up to check on the patients and there he was just standing there! Apparently he got out and took his plushies and went around to all these different cells looking for them. No one could figure out how he did it!" Marluxia continued laughing hard, apparently getting a real kick out of it. "Really brought old Xemnas off his high horse too." He grinned.

'_Ahh, so that's why he thinks it's so funny.' _Axel noted. Maybe Marluxia had a little problem with authorities?

For several more moments, Axel and Marluxia watched in silence as they watched an odd ritual between the three friends. "Cave drawings?" Axel exclaimed. For goodness sake was humanity regressing?!

"Nah… not _cave drawings, _Axel!Keep watching! We've given them tools for expressing themselves." Marluxia hushed him. Somehow Riku had produced a pen from somewhere and was scratching out pictures of people eating stars on the wall.

"Ahh, so that's how that gets there…" Axel noted about the graffiti. Interesting how there were only pictures, and occasional sloppy letters and rarely any coherent words. Axel decided he didn't care what Marluxia said, they were so cave drawings. Cave drawings by psychos. He grinned to himself, wondering how much money he could get for those drawings if he tried to sell them as art.

"What are you smiling about, _intern_?" Marluxia frowned. "I think maybe its time you got on your job? First give them lunch, then individual sessions."

"What?" Axel objected. "I didn't know I had to be doing sessions with them?" He gulped, not necessarily knowing how to handle himself around one schizophrenic, much less three.

Marluxia simply rolled his eyes and recalled Axel's earlier words to Xemnas. "No complaining, Mr. I-want-to-be-a-psychologist-please-let-me-intern."

Axel groaned loudly as soon as Marluxia was out of earshot. After a few deep breaths he rose lazily from his seat and ventured to the cafeteria where Zexion grumpily handed him three trays. "Where's Cid?" Axel equally grumpily inquired about the head cook. He liked Cid, but he wasn't too excited about his shady bookwormish apprentice, Zexion.

Zexion stared at Axel coldly and replied sarcastically. "Too busy to waste time chatting with _you_."

Axel glared at Zexion as he grabbed the trays and exited the room. Upon examination of the lunch tray, it was all cold food. Jello… a milk carton… cold eggs… a plain bagel… and a granola bar?! Eww! Axel felt a huge internal relief that he wasn't a patient and had perfectly well packed some leftovers for his own lunch.

In the hallway on his way back, he ran into Cid. "Oh hiya Axel, why are you delivering lunch? Want me to take it for you?"

Axel was about to explain that he just did what he was told when he was given an opportunity to cop out of entering the padded cell. His expression brightened. "Really? Could you? Do you want to?"

"Course!" Cid laughed, taking the trays from Axel's hands. "I love those three. Real characters they are."

He frowned at the contents of the tray, but didn't mention it out loud. Axel smirked when he looked away. He hoped Zexion would get a talking to!

Axel returned to the observation room as Cid entered the cell with the food. "Hey boys! I've got something for ya!" Cid smiled as he set the food on the table.

"GUMMI BLOCKS!!!" Sora screamed, picking up the square of green jello and ran to place it under his bed. Upon observation he had a large stash of congealing, half melted stickiness that was once jello festering there. Axel simply groaned, dreading going in there later. What would he even say to them? Axel curled up in his chair and watched Kairi cut up her jello into a star shape. She proceeded to hand half of it to Sora, who excitedly grabbed it and hopped off to add it to his jello collection. Riku was picking at his food, trying to dip his bagel in his concoction of milk mixed with eggs and bits of granola bar. The whole episode ended with Riku wrapped in the red blanket that was supposed to go on his bed. Sora was screaming something about how Diz didn't need to touch a single blonde hair on his head. _'Blonde?!'_

All too soon Cid was exiting the room and patting him on the back. "Good luck, kid." He waved.

Axel watched his back as he left. He gulped and adjusted his shirt, stalling for time. At long last he placed his hand on the door and slowly turned the handle. He entered the room and looked around at the three of them. "H-hi." He mumbled. He had been warned to wear a football helmet around the female, so he looked at the two males. Maybe he'd go for the shorter one first? He seriously doubted the kid could do any serious harm to him. _'Geeze this kid only looks about 16 or 17 years old… such a tragic illness at such a young age.' _He gulped trying not to show fear. Could they smell fear?! He took a deep breath, trying to remember what Marluxia had said about acting like they were regular people.

"Umm… Sora, could you come with me for a little while?" He ventured.

**Sora's POV**

Sora was just getting done storing away the gummi blocks he'd acquired at Cid's shop when it happened. A portal to the darkness opened up and through it stepped none other than Axel! Axel himself!

Sora hopped up from where he was sitting and yelled excitedly. "Axel! I thought you were dead!"

He ran up to Axel and gave him a hug. "I thought you had died!" He practically sobbed into his shoulder.

"Err… nope. Not dead." Axel squeaked, unsure of how to react when Sora hugged him.

Axel reopened the portal to the darkness and beckoned him to come with. Sora turned around and nodded to Kairi and Riku. "We're connected. I'll always be back." With that and a smile, he followed Axel into the darkness and he was gone.

**A/N: **What did you think? Good crack or bad crack?So that was a lot of stuff from Axel's POV. I'm planning on mixing it up more in the future. In future chapters you will discover even more odd things about the delusional world of Kingdom Hearts.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's notes: **This story is credited to Einstein, who invented fanfiction. (just waking you up!)

I appreciate reviews! It's a bit of an off the wall fic, so any commentary is MUCH appreciated.

**Chapter 2**

**Axel's POV**

Marluxia tapped Axel on the shoulder smugly, "I'll be in the observation room."

Axel glowered at Marluxia. Was he unwilling to let up for even a second? "Geeze, lay off, Marluxia."

Marluxia hmphed in a mock offended tone. "Hey, that's _doctor _Marluxia to you! I gotta act like your superior once in awhile." He shrugged and threw open the door on the left. "You're just lucky it's me evaluating you and not… Xemnas or someone."

Axel gulped when he heard that. "Evaluated?" He squeaked, trying not to show his nervousness in front of his patient.

"Heh, maybe you'll even get to meet Roxas today." Marluxia muttered amusedly. "I kinda miss that kid."

Axel just furrowed his brow, wondering whether it was even worth trying to decipher things that Marluxia said. Sora himself was yelling 'Who's Roxas?!' in the background.

The pressure was on. He frowned to himself, deciding he would try his best to forget about Marluxia's annoying existence for the time being.

"Right this way, Sora." He gestured to the dull pink plush chairs inside an overly nice looking room. A fish tank bubbled quietly in the corner and a mini Zen garden sat on the table between the chairs. There was also a vase with a daisy in it, the bottom half filled with murky water.

"So… how was your day, Sora?" Axel asked for lack of better thing to say as he settled into the chair.

**Sora's POV**

Sora knew that most people wouldn't agree with him, but he knew Axel could be trusted. He knew Axel would die to keep him safe. This was again reinforced in his mind when Marluxia showed up to bother them. He saw Axel turn and glare at Marluxia, so he did too. Would these nobodies ever leave him alone?

Luckily, Axel was able to get Marluxia to leave them alone just by threatening him. He tried to stand behind him and look intimidating. He summoned his keyblade for good measure. Then, easily as that, Marluxia opened a portal to the darkness. Before he slipped out, he mumbled something about 'Roxas'.

"Who's Roxas?!" Sora hollered after him. Clenching his hands in tightly frustration, he frowned, "Why won't anyone tell me who Roxas is?!" He had half a mind to run after Marluxia, but before he could even act, the portal to the darkness had closed once again.

Sora huffed and resigned himself to obliging to Axel. He stared at the chair. This place was familiar! "Alice in Wonderland it must be." He decided. He was way too big for this chair. Way, way too big. Spotting the shrinking potion on the table, he grabbed it and took a long swig. Instantly he was shrinking. He decided to hop up onto the table before he got too small to get around reasonably. That way he could get to the chair like Axel had said. He hopped as far as his tiny body could manage and landed on the chair. He turned to face Axel who was sitting across from him.

"Oh Axel, I'll tell you all about my day!" Sora grinned, "But don't you think we should worry about the Organization members first?"

**Axel's POV**

Axel watched helplessly as Sora walked into the room and the first thing he did was grab the vase and down the dirty water in it. "Eww! I mean… stop!" Axel waved his hand to no avail. He didn't know whether to face palm or scream when Sora jumped on top of the table. Good thing that kid was relatively small, because the table probably would have collapsed under most people's weight.

"You can play Alice in Wonderland as long as you want later, just…" Axel was torn between giving the patient space and preventing him from being rambunctious. "Just get off the table!"

He saw Sora crouch and Axel panicked. "Oh no! You are not gonna jump you little…!" He lunged for Sora, but before he could get to him, Sora had pummeled himself full force into the chair. "Sora!"

Axel nearly collapsed in relief when he saw that this wasn't one of the head first dives Sora was famous for. He looked up at Sora who was scrunching up as small as he could in the large chair and squinting at Axel as if he were very far away. "Calm down, allright? It's a good chair. A _nice _chair! Let's stay in the chairs, how about that Sora? Chairs are good for _sitting,_ aren't they?"

He took a deep breath, hurriedly trying to write down everything in his notes. "Uhh, the organization?" What organization? The hospital? "Um, I think we're okay here." He tried to be ambiguous enough to get the right answer, hoping he wouldn't set off some sort of spark in Sora that would get him going again.

**Marluxia's POV**

Marluxia was laughing hysterically as Axel helplessly tried to deal with Sora. There was no evaluation, he'd just made it all up. He knew Axel was going to kill him later, but it the panicked look on Axel's face right now was so worth it. He rolled off his chair, laughing so hard.

Suddenly the door was thrown open and his fits of laughter abruptly stopped.

"What the hell are you doing?" Demanded Xemnas' cold voice.

"Ummm…." Marluxia stalled. He really had no good reason to be on the floor laughing.

Xemnas wasn't impressed. "Do you honestly think you're getting paid to roll around on the floor?"

Marluxia sulked as he stood up and brushed himself off. He searched for a change of subject to get the topic off of his poor job performance. "Uh, actually, I had a question for you. I couldn't find the detailed records for Sora, Riku, or Kairi. I was only able to give Axel the basic stats report." The stats report simply held a diagnosis, the results of several different blood tests, and any possible dangerous tendencies the patient had displayed.

Xemnas crossed his arms impatiently as if it pained him to state the obvious. "You aren't privy to that information."

"Wha…?" Marluxia's jaw hung open, "But we sign a waiver when we… shouldn't I…. doesn't everyone that works here as a doctor have access to the same information?"

Xemnas shook his head, but besides that ignored Marluxia's question entirely.

**Riku's POV **

Sora was gone again. Maybe he'd gone out to the island? Hopping in his boat, he traveled out to the island, searching it fully, but even before he got done looking he knew. Sora wasn't anywhere. Not on the island, not by the paopu tree, not even in the cave either.

"Kairi!" He found her and started shaking her shoulders. "Where's Sora?!"

"He disappeared!" She panicked, looking in the direction of the door.

After getting no useful answer from her, he decided it was time to use that trick he knew. "Kairi… I have to do it." He ripped off a piece of his black sweatshirt and tied it around his eyes as a blindfold. "I have to navigate the darkness."

Kairi gasped and ran over to Riku, crying. "No Riku! You can't! You can't do this!"

Riku swallowed hard, but answered resolutely. "I have to do this Kairi. For him."

He stepped forward slowly, and opened the portal to the darkness as he swore he'd never do again. He took a deep breath. "Goodbye Kairi." And then he plunged into the darkness.

**Larxene's POV**

"Oh shit." One look around the corner had Larxene regretting that she even came up through this wing of the building. "That little lock picker!"

Riku was wandering about the hallway blindfolded, muttering about Sora. He would occasionally stumble into walls, then place his arms in front of him to 'navigate'. Larxene thought briefly of calling Xemnas, but she really didn't want to be around him when he found out that one of the patients labeled dangerous was out and about. She could just pretend she didn't see? Tempting, yes, but her curiosity got the better of her.

"Why hello Riku. How did you get out of your little cage?" She grinned.

Riku stiffened but did not choose to acknowledge her.

"What are you looking for?" She pressed.

Again, she was met with rigid silence.

She already knew this pattern. The two patients seemed to have a severely co-dependent relationship. "You're looking for Sora."

Riku broke at this. "Sora!" He whipped around to face her. "You know where he is?"

"Y…yeah." She was still so used to calling him Roxas. "He's with Axel."

In a second he was on her. "Take me to him."

Taken aback, she nodded until she realized the implications of wearing a blindfold and voiced her thoughts aloud. "Okay. Fine."

She closed up the door that now locked in Kairi, the most dangerous of the three patients in that room. At least she was contained. "Why do you wear a blindfold Riku?"

Riku looked like he struggled coming up with an answer for that one. "If I look at the darkness, something very bad will happen." Kairi had said so. "It would be like opening my heart to the darkness."

**Sora's POV**

"I'll have to say my day was pretty regular until you came along Axel." Sora got comfortable once he was assured that this place was hidden from the organization members. "I woke up, went for a swim, drew some stuff in the cave with Kairi, and Cid came by and provided me with some gummi blocks. I sat at the tree for a bit and talked with Riku. You know… just everyday stuff. I thought everything had gone back to normal until you came back. Back to… before everything happened with Kingdom Hearts."

Axel looked a little confused. "What do you mean 'before everything happened with Kingdom Hearts'?"

Sora shook his head. "Long story, my friend, but you should know everything after the time when I lost my memory. Basically, we lived on our island, me and Riku, then one day Kairi came and everything changed. Suddenly we wanted to see worlds outside our own, even though she couldn't tell us where she'd come from herself." That's how it had all started. "Then the door opened, and everything's been different ever since."

Sora waited patiently while Axel furiously scribbled on a notepad. "Heh, how do you control fire like that? It's cool." He wondered, noticing for the first time the flames dancing around in Axel's hands.

**Axel's POV**

Axel stared blankly at Sora until he looked down at his notebook. It had a flame design. "Ohhhh, heh heh." He wasn't really sure whether to confirm or deny that, so he just said, "Thanks." But he flipped the notebook around so the design wasn't apparent from just looking at it.

Sora was making good progress, despite the fact that stupid ass Marluxia had only given him a small fraction of Sora's chart that he needed. He was scribbling down the last of his sentence when Sora said, "Hey, why don't you come sit on this chair with me… its huge."

Axel stared blankly at Sora, unable to interpret the situation. "What?!" Sora wanted company in the chair? Talk about inappropriate doctor and patient relationship!

"Oh, okay fine, I'll drink the growing potion, but I'm warning you, I'll get REALLY big." He grabbed the vase and drank the rest of the nasty plant water, this time letting the vase fall from his hand smashing to bits on the floor.

"Oh my gosh! So big! Stop growing!" Sora rolled out of his chair and flopped on the ground. He stood up slowly, making sure to crouch to avoid the ceiling.

"Sora, calm down okay? This ceiling, uhh… expands for you, so don't worry."

Sora immediately calmed down. He took several deep breaths as he stared at the fish tank. Seconds turned into minutes as Sora stood mesmerized by the fishes.

Slowly, Sora turned to give Axel a very serious look. "My friends are in danger." He said gravely. "I've got to do something."

**Sora's POV**

Ursula was on the attack! Sora, being the hero he was, could not stand around and let his friends suffer. Talking with Axel would have to be put on hold.

"Here I come Atlantica!" He shouted as he dove into the ocean.

**Axel's POV **

Axel screamed in horror as Sora plummeted himself into the fish tank. How did he even get the lid off of that thing?!

To make matters worse, the door was thrown open at that moment. Larxene and blindfolded Riku walked in.

Larxene went wide eyed at the scene. Axel screaming, Sora in a fish tank, her with an escaped mental patient. "Normally I wouldn't break code." She said referring to her interrupting a doctor-patient session, "But you look like you're having a little bit of difficulty."

She immediately ran over and tried to help Axel pull Sora out of the fish tank, but it was no use. Sora wasn't coming out of there. He clung to the sides for dear life, keeping his head completely submerged.

"He's turning blue!" Larxene screamed.

"I KNOW!" Axel would have shot her in the face if he hadn't been trying to help Sora. Quite clearly he was having a problem, she needed to shut up and help better before Sora drowned.

Unknowingly to Axel or Larxene, Riku had ripped his blindfold off when he realized Sora was in danger. Taking in the situation, he dove headfirst into the fish tank after Sora.

"Oh no!" Axel cried, not Riku too! His job, life, and livelihood was over, right there! Forget the internship.

However instead of drowning them both, Riku pushed Sora up and out of the water. "Sora breathe!" He screamed in a moment of amazing clarity as he crawled out carrying Sora.

**Sora's POV**

Sora coughed up a bit of water as he exited Atlantica. It was always like that in the transition between a water world and a normal world. It was only natural, and he didn't see what Riku seemed to be worried about. All was well again since he'd managed to convince Eric to defeat Ursula once and for all. He'd still go back to visit friends of course though.

"Oh Riku, you were an eel… that's SO cool!" Donald had such magical powers! Too bad Sora was only a dolphin.

**Riku's POV**

Riku couldn't really place it but something was really, REALLY wrong. He surveyed the room. He saw the fish tank, but where was Atlantica? Had he missed it? He saw the alarmed looks on Axel and Larxene's faces. He knew those faces, but where the hell were they?!

"I'm scared Sora, something isn't right. Let's go back to the island." Riku really wanted to be in a safe, happy place where he knew Sora wouldn't be taken away from him. Somewhere inside of him, it told him that Sora had been in danger. Had Sora almost killed himself just now?! Riku couldn't shake the thought.

"Sora, I think you might have almost drowned."

Sora laughed and shook his head. "Nonsense." He assured Riku as he held up the soaking wet duck plushie. "This guy can do wonders! You should know, you were there too."

Riku slowly shook his head. He didn't remember Atlantica. All he remembered was Sora… in danger. It had snapped a little something in his mind.

"You started to remember stuff, haven't you Riku?" Axel said gently.

Riku stared at Axel, then looked to Larxene. Familiar faces, but why? Suddenly a huge flash of memories hit him. "Doctors?! You guys are doctors?!" Why were there doctors?! Why were they here?! He had the feeling that he really, REALLY didn't want to know. This feeling grew into a wild fear. Almost like he might just die if he discovered whatever horrific thing was going on in this nightmare.

He screamed and held his head in his hands as more memories flooded him. He felt around desperately for the blindfold. "Stop it! Stop it! Make it STOP!"


End file.
